Jobless Claims Rise, Jersey A Big Contributor

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose to the highest level since early March, the government reported Thursday.

The Labor Department said that 315,000 newly laid off workers applied for jobless benefits last week, an increase of 11,000 from the previous week. The claims total was the highest since 319,000 laid off workers applied for benefits the week ending March 11.

Private economists had been forecasting a much smaller rise of around 2,000 applications last week. Even with the bigger increase, claims remained at a level indicating a relatively strong labor market.

The four-week moving average of claims, which smooths out weekly volatility, edged up slightly to 308,500 last week, compared to 305,750 the previous week. It was the highest level in three weeks.
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There were two states reporting an increase in layoffs of more than 1,000 for the week of April 15.

Georgia said that layoffs increased by 2,024, a rise that was blamed on higher unemployment in the textile industry. New Jersey officials reported an increase in layoffs of 1,625 with the rise blamed on increasing numbers of pink slips in transportation, warehousing and service industries.

While the weekly increase in New Jersey layoffs is interesting. I wouldn’t read too far into the number. For some insight into these numbers, take a look at the New Jersey WARN Notices for this year. Those can be found here:

New orders, a sign of future profits, fell 11% on a unit basis to 10,725, and the value of those contracts fell 4% to $3.8 billion. The company’s backlog of sold homes stood at $7.1 billion at the end of the quarter, up from $6.5 billion a year earlier.

On a unit basis, orders rose 7% in the Central region, but fell 29% in the Northeast, 15% in the West, 13% in the Midwest and 9% in the Southeast.

In the company’s conference call Thursday, Pulte management attributed the large drop in Northeast orders to declining demand in the New York metro region and the New England area.

As much as I would like to see housing price fall to rational levels, I do not really have faith in a quick correction. How come those POS house still listed at ridiculously high prices, where slightly less overprices houses sold in like within a couple weeks.

It is unfair that savers like us got punished badly by being conservative, whereas the majority of the population seems to fare well in this credit banquet..

Did you see wall street’s reaction to ben b.? pretty funny… i particularly like how they are pumping his comments to mean an end or at least a pause of fed fund rate increases… and all the guy said, as he has been saying all along, is that the committee’s decision will be data driven…